Contents

History

Origin

Music Meister claims he was bullied as a child, because he sang in choir. But he soon discovered that when he sang higher, that he could hypnotize people. He thus uses his newly discovered talents to control the people that had bullied him and plans to "settle the score". As he sang during his first song "Bullies used to pick on me because I sang in choir, but something very strange occurred as I kept singing higher, the ruffians around me quickly fell into a trance, and it was then with wicked glee I made those puppets dance!".

He uses his powers to get Black Canary, Green Arrow, Aquaman, Black Manta, Gorilla Grodd and Clock King to hijack a United Nations' communications satellite, launching it into space after they install a device for him. ( I'm The Music Meister). When Batman intervenes, he orders them to attack the hero, which they do in a dance style reminiscent of West Side Story. His plan successful, the Meister frustrates Batman once more, escaping by forcing his captives to can-can into the flames of the launching rocket, making the hero rescue them rather than apprehend the villain.

Meister escapes to an empty opera house where, in a parody of Phantom of the Opera he plays the organ to a cardboard audience. Batman tries to capture him on a cross-town chase while he sings "Drives us Bats" (where he makes references to the Batusi and Shark Repellent from the 1960s Batman series), eventually releasing prison inmates (including villains seen from past episodes) to attack the heroes. Having heard Black Canary sing, he also has fallen for her, but not enough to give up villainy, and she rejects him. Meister manages to capture Batman and Black Canary and put them in a death trap. They escape as Music Meister hypnotizes the world with his music (with help of the satellite). When Black Canary becomes his slave, Batman gets the satellite to transmit her sonic scream which breaks Music Meister's mind control and frees everyone. Batman then finally gets his hands on the Meister, decking him with a single punch to the jaw.

Relationships

Powers and Abilities

The Music Meister's main power is his singing voice, which creates a pitch so high that it hypnotizes anyone who hears it. In their state of hypnosis, it causes his victims to sing and dance too. He has a rod (roughly shaped like a conductor's baton) that can fire energy blasts shaped like music scores. He is also seen riding on a motorcycle shaped like a paired eighth notes; at one point, the cycle splits into a pair of Segway-like scooters, now resembling separate notes.

He also seems to have the uncanny ability to change his outfits befitting different eras in music history extremely quickly, such as Cab Calloway's zoot suit and Elvis's disco suit (as seen multiple times throughout the episode, its colors also reference Marvin from Super Friends ). Other costumes reference Liberace, The Music Man, Hair, Amadeus, country/western music and Wagnerian opera. The building he holds Canary and Batman in is known as "TB&TB". This is a reference to the now defunct punk rock bar CB-GB's; it is also the initials of the series.

Despite how powerful his hypnotic singing, it has two major weakness. One of them is it can't affected those who can't hear or wear earplugs to protect their ears from the hypnotic sound waves. The other one is high frequency sound waves like Black Canary's Canary Cry can cancels out his power and free the hypnotized victims.

Appearances

Trivia

The Music Meister was voiced by Neil Patrick Harris, who had previously played the singing supervillain, Dr. Horrible in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. When asked if he might ever make a second appearance in the show, he said it was possible.